The curved 720p, 6-inch display may not be the highest density screen around, but LG touts its IMAX-like, cinematic experience. LG is also talking up the phone's ergonomics and a new self-healing coating on the rear cover that smooths over everyday nicks and scratches. Internally, the phone uses the LG G2's silicon without much alteration: 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 13/2.1MP rear/front cameras, and buttons on the back. Thanks to the added size and the team at LG Chem, however, the G Flex has an extra 500 mAh, clocking in at 3500 mAh. If you're thinking this will look nice around the holidays, hold your horses. Officially, the G Flex will be available in South Korea in November, with its arrival in other markets still pending.

What the f*ck is the point of a curved screen? I get that it might be better wrt. viewing angles on a (much) larger screen, but when the screen is this small? I don't curve the pages on a book or even a magazine when reading (other than for structural support). So the viewing angle argument simply doesn't hold water. And if you're looking from off center you'll have uneven distortion of the image - the part nearer to you will get squished more than the part further from you. A flat screen doesn't suffer from this. So other than as a marketing term, when will a curved smart phone screen ever be preferable?

The self-repair sounds truly innovative, but the curvature is in the wrong direction. Who the hell could/would carry something so oddly shaped in their pocket?

Self-repair is hardly innovative, since some Nokia phones have had it since 2010 (for example the N8). The anodised aluminium body remains completely scratch free to this day, despite taking a beating.

The tech to create the curved screen is cool. Lots of engineering challenges solved. I applaud the ingenuity.

What I can't determine is why do this? What's the advantage? Seems like another example of Solution Desperately Seeking a Problem.

It definitely does create a problem. I leave my phone open all day on my desk, so I can type on it without picking it up every time. A curved phone would be ridiculous to use for my needs, considering that it would roll around and move every time I tried to press its screen.

Do people actually want curved phones? My pockets would not appreciate a six inch phone with what looks like a roughly 5° arc top and bottom.

I was asking the same thing. All this work leading up to the curved display left me wondering "why" the entire time.

When new innovations like this come out (often from Samsung and LG), I can't help thinking of that quote from Jurassic Park:

John Hammond: I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before...Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.

Props to LG for doing it, but like Samsung's effort to put a pico projector in a phone, I can't see this becoming a standard part of a smartphone any time soon.

If you put this phone in your side picket horizontally it will fit the curve of your leg, and if you put this phone in your back pocket vertically it will fit the curve of your butt.

Yes, if you carried you phone in your side pocket (?? I guess you mean like in cargo shorts) or your back pocket. But some of us carry our phone in our front pocket.

That said, I see this more of a niche phone that probably won't sell well. IMHO.

It's more of a technology demonstrator than a usable product, just like the Samsung Round, in my opinion. The manufacturers are getting the hang of using the flexible displays to make more phones in different configurations. Now they need to figure out which ones will be useful...

Why in the world is it a good thing to have a curved display? Yes, it's an interesting manufacturing process, but there's no user advantage to it. A flat screen makes more sense.

Not at those sizes, probably.

One of curved displays' advantages, for example, is almost constant angle of incidence across the surface. Colors changing because viewing angle goes to acute at corners from perpendicular in the middle is easy to see when using tablets, especially cheaper ones (but then, who'd want to lug around a curved tablet?). Big computer displays might benefit from same as well.

And something like Occulus Rift would probably be a lot less bulky with a display like that.

Why in the world is it a good thing to have a curved display? Yes, it's an interesting manufacturing process, but there's no user advantage to it. A flat screen makes more sense.

Not at those sizes, probably.

One of curved displays' advantages, for example, is almost constant angle of incidence across the surface. Colors changing because viewing angle goes to acute at corners from perpendicular in the middle is easy to see when using tablets, especially cheaper ones (but then, who'd want to lug around a curved tablet?). Big computer displays might benefit from same as well.

I can see the potential advantage for a curved display for devices used in "landscape" orientation. The problem here is that phones are most frequently held in portrait orientation. And tablets, barring perhaps the ones with wide aspect ratios, are often held in either manner. A desktop display is another matter entirely, so I'd agree that they'd be a more practical application for curved glass. But for a phone? Perhaps if we mutated so our eyes are one over the other instead...